The State We're In

The revered public radio program born at Radio Netherlands Worldwide is back! The State We're In gets a reboot as host Jonathan Groubert & TSWI join the WBEZ family. The show brings you astonishing, true and personal stories from all over the globe. TSWI will bring you guests who will amaze you, break your heart or leave you laughing – sometimes all of those things at the same time.

The revered public radio program born at Radio Netherlands Worldwide is back! The State We're In gets a reboot as host Jonathan Groubert & TSWI join the WBEZ family. The show brings you astonishing, true and personal stories from all over the globe. TSWI will bring you guests who will amaze you, break your heart or leave you laughing – sometimes all of those things at the same time.

The revered public radio program born at Radio Netherlands Worldwide is back! The State We're In gets a reboot as host Jonathan Groubert & TSWI join the WBEZ family. The show brings you astonishing, true and personal stories from all over the globe. TSWI will bring you guests who will amaze you, break your heart or leave you laughing – sometimes all of those things at the same time.

Episodes

Black Peter or Zwarte Piet: is it a beloved Dutch Christmas character or a racist throwback to the minstrel tradition? Quinsy Gario, a media expert from the Dutch Island St. Maarten, didn't think much of it until his mother was called “Zwarte Piet”. Then he launched a public campaign to end the tradition that led to a police beating, death threats and a national debate and led him to being, for a few months, the most hated man in The Netherlands. (Photo: Quinsy Gario)

In possibly the most hard-hitting TSWI ever, Jonathan speaks with Meron Estefanos, an Eritrean/Swedish journalist whose online radio show speaks with prisoners held hostage in Sinai torture camps. Thousands of Eritrean refugees have fled the military dictatorship at home to find a better life in Sudan and Israel. Many are kidnapped and ransomed by Bedouins. Meron tells Jonathan how she tries to help them by publishing their pleas for help. She also talks about her trip to Israel, the Sinai...

On this week's The State We're In from WBEZ: Changelings. Two stories about transformations from around the globe. We explore the revolutionary history of Yemen, and an exploration of Jewish roots in Poland.

On this week's The State We're In from WBEZ: Muhammad Ali and Me. The story of how Muhammad Ali tried to make one man into a rock and roll superstar... and how he literally lost it all. (Image: album artwork for Michel's album featuring Muhammad Ali and Michel)

This time on TSWI from WBEZ: A Close One. Three short stories of people who have had a brush with something terrible and walked away from it somehow changed, sometimes for the better. Comedian Yannis Pappas gets shot in the leg and has to learn how to find the funny again. Runner May el Khalil gets hit by a car and creates the Beirut marathon from her hospital bed. And Jonathan goes on a holiday to Africa and has a dangerous confrontation with desperation.

Australian filmmaker Anna Broinowski wanted to stop an oil company from fracking in the park near her house. When her message fell short, she decided she needed to learn from the masters of propaganda filmmaking: the North Koreans. So she went to the world's most isolated nation to learn how to make a revolutionary drama in which "heroic workers" overthrow the "evil gas miners". And she succeeded.

Can you be both a warrior and a humanitarian? Can the gun truly serve peace and freedom? In an immensely popular TED Talk, former Dutch Armed Forces Chief, General Peter van Uhm, argues that the gun is an instrument of freedom from repression -- in the right hands. He tells host Jonathan Groubert that his belief remains unshaken, even after his own son’s death at the hands of the Taliban.

In this first episode of The State We're In podcast, now from WBEZ, host Jonathan Groubert speaks with a man who know a thing or two about new beginnings. After the death of his son, Englishman Stuart Sharp dreamed angels came to him and granted him the gift of a symphony. Stuart sacrificed everything, family, job, home... everything...to get the music made. (James Adomian)

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